Dive Brief:

• New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday announced an initiative that will require the city’s public schools to offer computer science to all students within 10 years, reports Information Week.
• According to estimates from New York’s Department of Education, fewer than 10 percent of New York schools currently offer any form of computer science education.
• Chicago and San Francisco also recently made commitments to offer computer science to all students.
   

Dive Insight:

The goal of the city’s Computer Science for All initiative is for all students to have some exposure to computer science, said de Blasio during his announcement. But meeting that goal will present challenges, such as training enough teachers. There is no state teacher certification in computer science in New York.

Computer Science for All will "deliver computer science education to every student in New York public schools -- from the 9-year-old learning to program Scratch in the Bronx to the 15-year-old building web applications in Brooklyn -- over the next 10 years," according to the mayor's office. "This will make New York City the largest school district in the country to provide computer science education to all students, in all public schools."

Mayor De Blasio added that the plan, "speaks to the reality of the world we live in now. From Silicon Alley to Wall Street to the fashion runways, industries all across our city are increasingly relying on new technologies -- and are in need of workers with the experience to help them achieve success."

Earlier this year, Chicago pledged to make a yearlong computer science course a high school graduation requirement by 2018, and the San Francisco Board of Education voted in June to offer computer science from prekindergarten through high school, and to make it mandatory through eighth grade.

Meanwhile, a recent report from Appirio and Wakefield Research found that a shortage of IT talent often prevents businesses from meeting their IT goals.